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USC Morning Buzz: Time For A Brief Detour Into Donald Sterling World

A little off topic this morning because I think the readers deserve a spot to discuss last night’s Donald Sterling interview with Anderson Cooper. As someone who covered the Clippers nearly 20 years ago, last night showed why team officials always did everything they could to prevent Sterling from dealing with the media.

Most employees I knew were embarrassed to work for Sterling . . . and that was before the racist stories emerged. His basketball behavior was weird enough. There was the famous story that he canceled an agreed trade sending Danny Manning to the Miami Heat for Glen Rice because he awoke from a dream that Manning led the Clippers to the NBA championship.

And the fact you were instructed to call him Mr. Sterling or DTS (his initials) but never Don or Donald. Eventually, I did have some conversations with Sterling and a throwaway remark on CNN brought back my memories of him. “I’m deciding if I like you,” he told Cooper last night.

When I spoke to Sterling, questions were ignored and his answers always veered back to, “aren’t you my friend?” or “why aren’t you nice to me?” Everything revolved around him. Everyone needed to validate him. Or approve of him. This was in the mid-90’s, way before the lawsuits from his tenants.

Back then, the awful quality newspaper ads where he congratulated himself were about as demeaning as it got, aside from the Clippers record.

Now he is proving to be far worse than a basketball buffoon. His interview with Cooper was more damaging than his audio tapes. A full transcript is here. If you saw the interview, what did you think? Does he have thousands of defenders as he claimed? And what will the Clipper players do if he (and his wife) still own the team? Feel free to discuss.

I have had to up to here with Sterling news. The L.A. Times grabs a story and wrings it for everything its got. I bet this is not playing in Peoria or even very much in New York

The guy in some ways is a typical L.A. rich guy– namely, soulless and egocentric coupled with an “I’m better than you because I have money” attitude.

What’s not to like?

Brad Hutchings

Comment below about people being tired of this story… You cannot get tired of it. Because if you get tired of it, Sterling gets over.

He doesn’t have 1000s of defenders. He has 1000s of enablers. Coaches and players who take his money, front office people who drove Clipper Daryl away, the NBA for letting him ruin top prospects and take salary cap subsidies for 20+ years, his wife, their lawyers, etc. And I’ll add people who are sick of the story to the list.

1 simple action by 1 coach or star player will bring this to a quick end. If Doc Rivers quits 5 minutes after the season ends, nobody will fill his spot without tarnishing whatever legacy they want or have. Same goes for CP3, Blake, etc. The rest will fall in line at moderate short-term expense to themselves, which could/should be fixed by the league or players union. But I’m guessing none of them will, leaving it to a committee of owners to work it out over many years. Sterling will be enabled this time by a lack of courage.

Scott, why on Earth is Magic going to do an interview with Anderson Cooper tonight? It can only go badly for him. The only thing anyone cares about is where V. Stiviano fits into his picture.

ScottWolfSniffsHisOwnFarts

The annoyance with this story is how the media flocks to it like locusts. The guy is apparently an a$$. But, it would be appreciated if journalists applied the same scrutiny to topics of far more importance. And I’m not disagreeing with anything you wrote. Just explaining the annoyance with the ad nauseum coverage.

marvgoux1

Stern and Silver enabled Sterling for decades. Nobody wants to talk about that.

https://www.facebook.com/charles.bucket.3 Charlie Bucket

maybe a good place to start is to name Sterling’s defenders on this blog: namely Nubs, Barry and Cheap Lies. these racists insist DTS was taken out of context or was set up. well, like the defenders of Cliven, they will probably still back DTS up now that his true nature is revealed. such are these trOXans.

wolfman, perhaps rather than waiting for the NBA to take out the trash, you and Gina-D should clean house on this blog! Nobs for instance make a comment about Jack Wang having being “slanty”. although he immediately changed the comment it was still emailed to Gina D for her review. i see NobsisdaMan is still here. don’t criticize the NBA when DL can’t control it’s own blog’s racists!!

juan carlos

You are beginning to learn. Well done. Enlightenment can be achieved.

TrojanFan3.0

Tell that to his mom

NOBSisdaMAN

I didn’t change it the moderator did. You’re the biggest instigator and basher on this blog. YOU SHOULD BE BANNED…but you’re Scott.

juan carlos

You are correct Nobs. This poster has continuously shown his homophobic and racist beliefs. I believe he is from an older generation and still has some outdated values and beliefs. Perhaps that is why he/she is able to cite quotes from very old movies.

However, I believe the more other posters like yourself take note and confront this hatred, then sooner we can rid the world of it.

TrojanFan3.0

The guy’s prize possession is a soiled jockstrap……ouch!

NOBSisdaMAN

Here’s a few of your lovely rants:

Charlie Bucket • a day ago

you’re the one OBSESSED with the Gay football player.

come to the Glow Room if you want to see some Backfields in motion, you big stud, you.

Charlie Bucket • 2 days ago

wolfman….you are one RUTHLESS VATO LOCO!!!

you show about as much mercy to the trOXans as a fat guy shows to a box of Krispy Kremes!!!!

Charlie Bucket • 4 days ago

why is it all you Breeders know more about Gay hang outs and terminology than even most gay people do??

wait a minute…….

Charlie Bucket • 4 days ago

Well, where are you? If there’s a rainbow flag, watch your 6, stud-muffin!!

The guy has a bad case of dementia and continues to live in denial. It must suck to be Charlie waste bucket.

I keep telling the guy a 9mm is his best option

juan carlos

Since we’re explaining things. Can you please explain where you get your racist and homophobic opinions? Perhaps once we discover the source of your hate, your inner healing may begin.

https://www.facebook.com/charles.bucket.3 Charlie Bucket

I hate all races different than myself (French/Hawaiian) and I’m not too crazy about fat guys (mon Dieu!) but mostly, I hate trOXans, and you are shooting up the charts as well, whatever you are…

juan carlos

My only hope is that you find peace within yourself and not hate others. I suspect the true cause of your hate is internal, perhaps some childhood incident. I hope things work out for you. There is good within you. Don’t be afraid to express it. Things are much more glorious on this side.

TrojanFan3.0

I think it started with a funny tasting bowl of cheerios

TrojanFan3.0

How do you explain your love for Lane Kiffin?

TrojanFamily

I do think its hilarious that on an issue of such significance, all you care about is who is posting on this blog. You need to enlarge your world considerably. Take some time off here and get some larger perspectives.

Jethro G Sabbath

Great point Chuck!
Identifying screenames behind anonymous posts in the comments section of a USC message board will really make an impact on racism in America.
Where did you come up with such a brilliant idea?

https://www.facebook.com/charles.bucket.3 Charlie Bucket

Thanks, I have my moments.

TrojanFan3.0

The men’s showers?

Wayne Lusvardi

Who cares? If egoistic and stupid Donald Sterling mouths racist attitudes but pays his mostly Black American players $73 million a year, and his Black American coach $7 million a year? Capitalism, not government or media, penalizes discrimination.

Attitudes and behavior are not always consistent. In 1934, Stanford professor Richard La Piere went on vacation with a Chinese colleague and his wife. They went on a cross country trek and stopped at 66 hotels and 184 restaurants along the way. The professor always asked his Chinese colleague to make the hotel reservations. Afterwards, the professor sent questionnaires to the same hotels and restaurants in the Southern U.S. if they would provide service to Chinese customers? In the 1930’s prejudice against Chinese was high in the South. 92% of those who responded said they would refuse service to Chinese. But when it came to actual commercial behavior, only one motel and no restaurants refused to accommodate the Chinese customers. Many restaurants went out of their way to give unusually good service.

Did you ever watch Woody Allen’s 1989 movie Crimes and Misdemeanors? It is about a wealthy opthalmologist who hires his brother to murder his mistress because the mistress was demanding the doctor marry her or she was going to tell his wife. But the opthalmologist also donated multi-millions of dollars to hospitals to take care of the needy.

What is a crime? What is a misdemeanor? Murder is a crime. Racist attitudes are a misdemeanor and should be penalized as such especially when there is no discrimination involved. Criminalizing Donald Sterling by using the media to justify taking his property is criminal in itself. And so what if Donald Sterling has racist attitudes? Does that negate his reported good works of donating to hospitals to help the needy? He could find other tax shelters other than donating to hospitals. Donald Sterling didn’t murder anyone. Neither did Reggie Bush.

Reportedly, Bush’s family benefited from the capitalistic system to get an advance sum from a sports agent just as a talented Black American musician or singer that attends USC might get from a record company.

What is a crime? What is a misdemeanor?

WEB_Dupree

I hear that stealing crabs’ legs is not even a misdemeanor in Florida.

Wayne Lusvardi

Hey, just because Hank Aaron spouts out negative attitudes towards so-called White people, justifiably or unjustifiably, does that justify my taking his property? No! Is anyone starting a movement to ban Aaron from the baseball Hall of Fame? No.

And, ironically, there is a famous ex-USC football player who once was charged with murder who now is in jail for other crimes. However, Donald Sterling and Reggie Bush are criminalized in the media (and USC by the NCAA in Bush’s case).

WEB_Dupree

But — if Jameis Winston is the one taking the property, that is pretty much okay as long as he sits out a baseball game or two.

Independent_George

Is anyone going to jail? No. Nothing is being criminalized.

And no one is taking is property. He is being forced to sell his rights to own and operate and NBA franchise. He gets all the money, including the ginormous windfall he and his family will receive — from a $13 million dollars leverage investment to perhaps one billion dollars cold cash.

Donald Sterling did very little to create that value. People like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and Michael Jordan and David Stern created that value. Sterling leeched off it, for years he received luxury tax payments from teams that were willing to invest in their franchises.
Donald Sterling is a franchisee. When he bought the Clippers, he signed a franchise agreement. Almost all franchises permit the franchiser to take away individual franchises. This is often because of poor management, with the idea that one poorly run franchise hurts all franchises. But at times it is because of poor publicity. Or even publicly expressing “values” contrary to the franchiser and the franchise agreement.

Wayne, I would advise you to never, ever buy into a McDonalds or Chick-Fil-a franchise. You have no free speech rights, especially with Chick-Fil-a. You will not only lose your franchise, you will lose your capital investments. In the words of Willy Wonka: YOU! GET! NOTHING! GOOD DAY SIR!

By the way, if American Sports Leagues were truly capitalist, they would be like the European soccer leagues. If the Clippers were in the EPL, they would have be relegated and declared bankrupt decades ago. But in the socialistic American sports leagues, it truly is Marxist: “From each according to his own ability, to each according to his own needs.” Sterling Clippers won exactly one playoff series in over 20 years of ownership. Yet his franchise is now worth one billion dollars because of the abilities of others in the NBA.

Ironic, ain’t it.

Wayne Lusvardi

Sure, and I guess it is OK to take your McDonald’s franchise away from you because you make racist remarks? What a bunch of illogic that is. And I guess the other NBA owners can set up a kangaroo court to take his property without due process?

Sterling is an egotistic and obnoxious person but taking property away even with compensation based on media criminalization smacks of an American version of something out of Soviet Union or Fascist Germany and Italy.

Once again, Sterling committed a misdemeanor not a crime. Sterling needs to be put out of the media spotlight despite his egotistic need for media attention and let someone else manage the team for him.

In the City of Pasadena, California the Black-American head of the Health Department, with a PhD in public health, was suspended from his job for making remarks on a religious broadcast that were against homosexuality and the theory of evolution. Should he lose his job for that? If he also owned a McDonald’s franchise should we additionally take that away from him for his remarks because it harms the McDonald’s brand?

Yes, Sterling’s mostly Black American basketball players created the value of his team as did the NBA. What’s that got to do with Sterling’s remarks? It’s a non sequitur that the NBA brand has been tarnished by Sterling so they can force him to sell his franchise. They can compel him to issue an apology, to take back his remarks, and to transfer the management and public face of his team to someone else. What if Sterling hired a Black American woman to serve in that role for him? Or his wife? Or a gay ex-basktball player? Or his mistress?

The Donald Sterling case has wider implications about what is called pluralism and democracy.

And there are laws against personally libeling and slandering someone but I guess if the media does it, it is OK? In the Soviet Union they just publicly ridiculed the bourgeoisie and the Kulak farmers and then used that to justify taking their property and their farms. Did you ever watch the movie Dr. Zhivago?

The punishment should fit the crime, or in this case, the misdemeanor, that’s all.

WEB_Dupree

I’ll stop with the Jameis Winston jokes and point out a couple of things. First, something isn’t a misdemeanor “or” a crime. A misdemeanor is a type of crime, albeit a lesser crime than a felony. So Sterling’s comments do not rise to the level of even a misdemeanor.

However, unlike the kulaks, Sterling will receive compensation and lots of it for the taking of his franchise rights (a form of property). As for due process, it seems likely that he and/or his wife will go to the courts to try to hold things up, but, whereas once upon a time courts frowned upon contractual provisions mandating the use of private dispute resolution mechanisms, courts today will enforce such provisions. If Sterling has previously agreed to submit to the NBA’s version of due process, then that is all the due process he is entitled to, generally. Sooner or later, the courts are likely to tell him so.

By the way, conservatives usually see mandatory private dispute resolution as a good thing, because it favors corporate defendants and puts individual plaintiffs at a disadvantage. Whoops, I meant to say “because it promotes the efficient resolution of disputes.”

Also, you say that “It’s a non sequitur that the NBA brand has been tarnished by Sterling so they can force him to sell his franchise,” but apparently it is not a non sequitur; it is an actual NBA rule, and they’re going to bash him over the head with it until they pry the Clippers from Sterling’s cold, dead hand.

Jethro G Sabbath

When you stop with the jokes you present a very good argument.

WEB_Dupree

What bothers me is that Sterling is being destroyed by what may be an illegal recording. Maybe it’s true that he gave her permission to tape him; who knows. But what if someone hacks a team owner’s computer and finds racist emails or other offensive stuff? If that tape recording turns out to have been made illegally, it’s a troubling situation, even if Sterling is a nasty old bum.

Jethro G Sabbath

I understand that but isn’t it true that because this is not a court case, rules of evidence do not apply and there is no such thing as an illegal recording?

WEB_Dupree

I wrote a response, but I must have used a forbidden word because it went into limbo. We’ll see if it appears later, I guess…

Jethro G Sabbath

You didn’t mention gar – ga – mel by any chance?

WEB_Dupree

I’m still amazed that they actually banned that word.

Jethro G Sabbath

Must have struck a nerve with somebody.

TrojanFamily

Agreed, except he appeared on CNN and pretty much confirmed the entire sentiment about him. Whoever told him that an interview to clear his name was a good idea deserves to be fired.

WEB_Dupree

I don’t feel sorry for the old jerk, and he’s just making everything much worse for himself at this point, but the scandal started with that tape, which may have been made illegally.

Imagine if a popular owner like Jerry Buss, near the end of his life, had been caught on tape saying something outrageous in private. I wonder if people would have been more willing to accept the “dementia” spin that Shelley Sterling has started peddling as an excuse. Of course, with Sterling’s history, the remarks seem to fit a sad and deliberate pattern.

betomas

Speaking of Jerry Buss, I had the pleasure of hanging out with him numerous times and he told me “Black people are too loud and White people are too quiet and boring. I like Mexicans because they’re just right.” Indeed, a racist statement in its very essence by Jerry Buss, but he absolutely said it. Anyone who knew him well knew that he spoke off the cuff about things like this once he felt comfortable around you. This begs the question: how many NBA owners hold racist views against minorities? Seems like DTS was afraid of getting clowns by some of his wealthy, racist peers.

WEB_Dupree

That’s more or less what I’m getting at. If there was a reservoir of goodwill out there for Sterling instead of an army of people who hated him, maybe we’d all be a little more willing to shrug and say, “Well, Grandpa is from another era, and he just doesn’t understand that the world has changed.” But Sterling put himself in this position through years of terrible choices.

marvgoux1

It’s interesting that the spin on Sterling is the illegal recording is no big deal but with Jay-Z it the illegal recording of his fight with his sister in law is an outrage.

betomas

Actually, most people online seem to be glad that Jay Z and Beyonce’s “America’s Couple” false image was tarnished by the video.

TrojanFamily

If your racism as a McDonalds owner means MY McDonalds faces boycotts, and when your McDonalds comes to play my McDonalds (and my bills are paid by the number of people who come to see our teams play) then absolutely! And if your ownership of McDonalds can mean that my McDonald’s “team” might walk off the job and ensure that I can’t make any money at my McDonalds playoff game, then absolutely.

Sterling’s presence in the NBA hurts ALL franchises because it diminishes the value of the league as a whole. It seriously threatened labor relations (Adam Silver had no choice but to throw the book at him lest he face a walkout during his playoffs). And a labor stoppage at any point, and particularly during the playoffs, hurts the value and profitability of every franchise. So even if you set aside the morality of the issue and look just at dollars and cents, Sterling needs to go. And we shouldn’t set aside the immorality of racism (and that horrendous plantation mentality “I love black people! I clothe them and feed them and buy them houses. Who else does that?” As though his paying his players is somehow charitable and he is their plantation father rather than their employer).

ThaiMex

Wayne…take it easy big guy…there’s very little to learn from OLD MOVIE’S and the simple fact they are OLD diminishes their value in today’s society…if you don’t believe me…just ask Pointy Toe Shoe wearing, One Car Lose! Now…..If Sterling would just come out and admit to being GAY….can you imagine the sympathy he’d be getting…
“it’s a wacky world we live in”…
fit Un!

TrojanFamily

Are you simply incapable of a rational thought? Or a coherent post?

Ben Factor

Wayne, he has chosen to become a public figure, in a business followed by children and young people.

The critical factor you are ignoring is that kids follow the NBA. Of course, Donald Sterling is not all bad. Of course, he has dementia. Still, it’s the wrong message to leave this bigot with the team.

I hate it when sport figures say they don’t want to be a role model. Really? Then do something else for a living. As Chip Kelly put it so wonderfully, you don’t get to participate in life selectively.

betomas

Ben, please read my earlier comment. I agree with a lot of what you wrote and even agree with you that Dr. Buss was very likable and conducted himself with class in the limelight. I knew Dr. Buss and he too made racist comments, even if, relative to Sterling’s comments, they seem less caustic, they are still racist comments.

Ben Factor

I don’t doubt what you’re saying about Jerry Buss, and if I sounded as though I was deifying him, I wasn’t intending that. However, it’s a wide divide between crying together with Magic Johnson about the AIDS diagnosis and mentoring Magic in business and making statements like those of Sterling. In addition, if Buss paid a lot of money to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit regarding the operation of his rental units, I never heard about it. Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Who among us has not found behavior within other cultures to be peculiar to us, and who among us does not think that the way we are living is the “best” way, and that somehow, that makes us better? Of course, when that is pointed out to us, most of us will confess that it’s kind of a silly assumption. Based on Sterling’s behavior in the last few weeks, I don’t think that he confesses that to himself.

Jethro G Sabbath

I’ve always been intrigued by the concept of relegation in English soccer. It’s interesting to think about it in American sports but it won’t ever happen because a large part of the value of a franchise is perpetual membership in whatever league you are a member of.

1Emmit

The Thought Police (media, particularly sports media and fascist pols.) determines what what are crimes. What are misdemeanors. Hate crimes, hate speech…hate thoughts are here. Orwell, 1984, was pretty close. He only missed by about thirty years.

TrojanFamily

The media and “fascist pols” (might be the first time Kornheiser and Wilbon et al were called fascists) were not the ones who were prepared to stage a walkout on their playoff game. The Golden State Warriors were. This is not an Orwellian “thought police” issue. It’s a basic labor issue–and THEY determined they no longer wanted to play in a league that did nothing when one of their franchise owners expressed values and ethics so antithetical to their own and their interests. At the end of the day, the media did not compel Adam Silver to throw the book at Sterling. NBA players did.

SUCC de trop

FYI Wayne, Leland Stanford Jr’s TATA ran for Governor of Ca. on the “No citizenship for the Chinese,” slogan. TATA ran his campaign while the Chinese were blasting and building a vital railroad through the Ca. Sierra’s to link east and west America. One would be hard pressed to come up with greater engineering feat in 19th century America.

Some good points. Keep in mind that this issue isn’t about RACSIM — rather the shockwave of reaction from the public and media.

To the media, they knew they had an absolute ace in this story, so of course, EVERY outlet would cover it. It’s the subject that even racists overreact to just to pretend they’re not racist.

What Sterling did was WRONG, but it also shows how hypocritical we are as a society and media.

Floyd Mayweather has been making racist remarks about Mexicans and any 3rd world origin opponent he fights for over a decade. He goes as far as even mocking Mexicans by wearing a full sombrero and poncho before the fight. He recently made a PUBLIC video mocking Filipinos and Manny Pacqiao.

Where was the coverage and outrage after that video? None. Nada. Instead, us Americans were “outraged” at Sterling’s remarks

Wayne Lusvardi

Good to have a serious discussion with even those who disagree with me instead of the cheap pot shots on pure sports topics.

Childhood cancer can be cured, while advanced adult cancer most often cannot. If Sterling in any way helped children get free of cancer that has to be taken into moral account even if he is a megalomaniac who wants attention for it.

In courts you have to tell the whole truth, in the media you can tell fractional truth.

betomas

You’re so lame, Weak Lusfarty that I won’t even bother to answer your ignorant, racist-apologizing asss.

Wayne Lusvardi

Just provide your real name so i can charge you with slander, just as you would probably say Sterling slandered certain people. Whose weak when you won’t provide your name?

Wayne Lusvardi

Unlike some on this website, I like what Magic Johnson is doing to Sterling, set up or not. Sterling needs to be pushed out of visibility and he should just become a passive investor in the team.

UCLA Bleauz

I agree, but his ego won’t allow him to be passive in anything he does, except his own demise…..

Beto Torrealba

“As someone who covered the Clippers nearly 20 years ago, last night showed why team officials always did everything they could to prevent Sterling from dealing with the media.” Geez, Scott… we can sure count on you for our daily fix of dangling modifiers!

juan carlos

If you had such concern about Sterling’s racism then why didn’t you say something during the past 20 years Scott? Is it just easier to say something now? Just jump on the bandwagon as opposed to actually speaking up about something so terrible? I guess it’s just easier to ridicule people on a blog than to do something constructive. May you learn from your mistakes Scott.

SUCC de trop

Check please. No tip for you.

juan carlos

Carry on. You haven’t learned yet.

SUCC de trop

No tlp for jou.

juan carlos

English is the primary language of communication in this country. Please continue on your journey. Unfortunately, it seems like it will be an arduous one. Good luck.

There’s a simple solution for Mr. Sterling. Cut a $25 million check to SUCC; Sterling receives an Honorary SUCC degree, and the use of Professor Arnie’s piece and cop-a-feel palace four times a year to hold press conferences on racial harmony.

Jethro G Sabbath

I understand that sentiment but in this case I think it is a good example of Karma catching up with someone.

I am quite sure that a number of the other owners have skeletons in their closets and want them kept secret. That will make it interesting when it comes time for them to actually decide Sterling’s fate.

Violet

Yesterday at Bunco, me and the girls saw the interview out of order, first they showed him crying and apologizing and saying how he was an old confused fool. and we were chanting “Let Him Stay! Let Him Stay!”

And then they showed him bashing Magic again , and all African Americans etc etc….and we felt like a bunch of duped idiots, or, Bruins.

Anthony Tony

“As someone who covered the Clippers nearly 20 years ago, last night
showed why team officials always did everything they could to prevent
Sterling from dealing with the media.”

So who in this sentence covered the Clippers 20 years ago? Team officials? This is bad writing.

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